A broken Alliance
by DameMaggie
Summary: Albus needs Minerva's support, and it seems Minerva's support hasn't been enough lately... ADMM. Chapter 1 written in 10 minutes, sorry about spelling mistakes.
1. Chapter 1

"Albus, are you in here?" Minerva peeked into his study, hoping to find him behind his desk as usual. The room was dark and oddly silent: no rustling of parchment, or fire crackling or portraits snoring. "Albus…" She now entered the room and looked around, although she knew it was useless. _He's gone._ "A-Al…" suddenly she broke down. The rush of emotions took her completely by surprise and she found herself in tears. Her knees felt weak and unable to hold her steady for much longer. She barely maade it to the couch beside the fireplace, and practically collapsed on it. "I'm so sorry…" she whispered, almost hoping he would be somewhere in the room, listening in.

* * *

_Flaskback._

_Albus stood up and suddenly the room became silent. He looked around the table carefully one last time to make sure no staff member was missing. "As you all know, I must leave to attend some business with the Ministry of Magic, I know it will be an agitated couple of weeks, since classes are about to start, but I'm afraid I can't delay this." He was silent for a moment. "Now good evening to everyone, and I will see you in two weeks time in time for the Sorting Ceremony of our newcomers. Minerva, Severus, Hagrid, Filius and Pomona, I will ask you to stay; everyone else is dismissed." _

_Once the seven of them were left alone, Albus started briefing them on the situation regarding the Philosopher's Stone and how it should be protected. Each of them, one by one, was assigned the task to design a different kind of protection barrier for the Stone. _

"_Severus, I expect you to command the project in my absence. Pomona and Filius I need you to start working right away, and Hagrid I will need to assign you a special task, we can discuss it in my office in a while. Minerva, I expect you will be able to take over my paperwork, if that is not too much to ask of you."_

_Minerva was about to glare but she wasn't sure she had quite understood what had just happened. "Just that? No big project for me?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I mean, what am I supposed to do? Shouldn't I work on designing a barrier too?"_

_Albus suddenly broke eye contact, clearly trying to avoid her gaze. "No, I just want you to handle the paperwork."_

"_WHY?"_

"_Because it's enough work for one person, plus I doubt you'd be willing to help..." _

"_Albus! How dare you!"_

"_Minerva, you will do as I say!" His voice suddenly sounding rather stern, almost angry. "As of the past few weeks, you have been fighting me over every decision I've made. If I'm going to have you as an enemy and not as an ally, then I might as well get a new deputy!"_

_Jaws had dropped. Minerva's eyes were glistening._

"_W-w-what have I done?" Everyone around them expected Albus to give an answer that would clarify everything. Instead, he just walked past Minerva, leaving her in a state of utter shock._

"_Minerva, I don't know what to tell you. All you have done lately is try to… to… I need you to be on my side Minerva! Last week you decided not to talk to me because of something that happened eleven years ago, when you knw perfectly well wa had no choice but to leave that boy with those muggles! This week, it's that you are completely against protecting one of the few items that Voldemort might want to make use of to finally return… what is wrong with you?" Albus stood before her desk, the look on his face indicated that he was reluctant to accept was he was being told._

"_Wrong with me? Really Albus? Excuse me, but I simply cannot understand why The Order can't deal with this whole Philosopher stone affair in a different way. It just doesn't seem a great idea to hide that thing here, where all of our students might be endangered! In addition to the fact that there must be other ways to hide it safely-"_

"_And what exactly do you suggest!?" this time Albus seemed furious._

_Minerva was clearly upset too, her stern expression, beautiful as it made her look, was beginning to take over, but she had never stood before such an infuriated Albus Dumbledore. She stood from her chair and walked firmly towards the centre of the classroom, where he stood amongst the empty desks. "I cannot believe, that after all we have been through, after all these years… you don't trust me." _

"_It would seem to me it is the other way around." He stated somewhat coldly._

"_But Albus… I love you." She looked into his eyes as she said it for the first time. Those words she has always longed to say, that had always remained unspoken, but that both of them had always known to be true. He looked right back into her beautiful green eyes, apparently impervious to the statement. She reached for his face, in the hopes of… just feeling him… but just as she was about to touch his face, she backed off, intimidated by the coldness of his eyes, which she had never seen before… ever._

* * *

Throughout the following week, Minerva dealt with the paperwork just as she had been told. In her spare time however, she knew she had to find a way to prove him wrong; to show him how much she actually supported him, even when she did not agree with him. She needed to mend what she had done, and especially, what she had said…

She would come and go from the library, looking for ideas, complex defensive spells and basically anything that could be of use. She spent a whole weekend scribling on parchments and she barely slept. She only came up with a good idea when she was about to give up. It was Sunday evening, and about the time when she and Albus would usually get together for a game of wizard chess. She prepared the chess board even though she knew he wasn't coming, but at least, she could pretend it was just another week, and that he wasn't away and terribly mad at her. She sat by the fire and stared at the chess board, occasionally taking one of the pieces in her hands, just to look at it closely in the fire light. "Oh, I wish I could help you…" but just as she was saying this, the idea came to her.

She knew that she had to talk to Severus now; coax him into letting her help. But she knew that wouldn't be hard, since it was obvious that once he heard her idea, he would give in. When Albus came back home, he would know how mistaken he had been.

Only a week and a half later, Minerva's effort had paid off, and she was now standing on a giant marble chess set. It had taken Filius and Severus' help to put it together, but she couldn't be more proud about her idea.

"Minerva," she turned. Severus steps echoed as he strided across the marble floor. "Albus is here."

She stared at him blankly. _Damn it. _She had been so busy that she hadn't stopped to think about this particular part of the plan… what would Albus' reaction be?

"It was a good idea." Severus stated. "He will be fine with it." Her concern must have been written all over her face for Severus to notice. As he was leaving he heard Severus' voice in the distance; he was talking to someone, and when Albus' voice reached her ears her heart started racing.

In what seemed to be seconds later, he was standing before her.

Silence.

"Minerva, look at me." She did.

"Why do you do this to me?"

"Albus I was only trying to help."

"Minerva… I… can I really not trust you anymore? Can I not trust that you will do what I need you to do?"

Her tears had started falling. She had failed again.

"I wanted to show you that I could do this Albus, that I support you, that I can help you even when I don't agree with you decision." She almost sounded like she was pleading.

Albus sighed.

"Take this," he handed her a stack of parchments. " They are from the Ministry. Can you simply answer them?"

She took them and looked at him. She was in tears, exhausted from the lack of sleep and effort she had put into this project and clearly broken hearted, but he didn't look into her eyes, and he didn't seem to care. "Go now Minerva."

TBC.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a knock on the door at about quarter past two in the morning. Minerva was surprised, she knew who it was on the other side of the door. She had not managed to fall asleep so it didn't exactly bother her that he had decided to drop by at this unusual time of day, but she wondered what he wanted. Did he want to talk about what happened eariler? If so, she wasn't sure that was a good thing. Their most recent exchanges had ended up in tears for her. As a matter of fact, she wondered if she should dry the fresh tears off her face before answering the door.

She decided she wouldn't think too much about it. She was just hoping that he wouldn't be too mad at her still. She knew what this sudden outburst of his was all about. This wasn't Albus annoyed about her attitude, quite on the contrary, she was quite certain that it was her capability to be sensible and objective around him that he believed to be her strongest of assets as his right hand. He was clearly afraid. For some reason he was scared and that fear involved her in some way. Minerva knew that one of the few things that could bring out anger from Albus was fear; fear for something dear to him… or maybe something too important. She couldn't just yet put her finger on what it was, but she had to have been doing something to interfere with his plans in some way without being aware of it…

She sat on the edge of the bed thinking about this as she heard a second knock on the door. She grabbed a long black robe that was hanging from the back of a chair as she made her way to the door and put it on. Her hair was loose and falling neatly on her shoulders.

The door revealed just the person she expected.

"Albus," she said in a rather emotionless tone.

"Minerva," he replied in a soft voice. She could tell he was upset.

"Anything I can do for you at this lovely time of day?" she asked in what would usually be intended as a joke, but which now did not elicit laughter or even a smile from either of them.

"Do forgive my timing," there was a pause as she took her time to lift her gaze from the floor and try to look into his twinkling blue eyes. He blinked and she could tell he had noticed she had been crying. He sighed. "May I come in dear? I believe there are a few things I need to explain."

She stepped aside to let him through. She closed the door and turned around to see him standing right before her. The moonlight came in from a nearby window. He reached out for her hand and guided her to the bed nearby, where she had been sitting herself only seconds before. Once they were both sitting comfortably on the edge of the bed, he took her hands in his and gently caressed them.

"My dear, I am so terribly sorry. I am so ashamed of myself-"

"Albus," she interrupted "I know you're sorry. I know you didn't mean to hurt anyone, I know you enough. I just wish you would trust me enough to tell me what you're so afraid of."

He looked back at her and drove his hand to his lips to plant a soft kiss on them. Minerva was surprised by her own reaction as she closed her eyes in pure delight. She was even more surprised to feel his lips enveloping hers. His hands were suddenly massaging the back of her neck and exploring the texture of her hair. Her gasps and moans were barely audible, but he could hear them disntinctly and was proud to be the cause of them. The kiss grew in intensity as he became more aware of how much he'd hurt her, and how badly he really wanted to show this woman he adored her. When they parted he just continued to plant small kisses on her cheeks, occassionally kissing away some tears.

He pulled her into a hug ever so gently.

"Oh my dear I'm so sorry. How is it that you grew to know me so well? How is it that you know exactly what to say and I just keep being such an idiot?"

She looked up at him.

"Tell me what's wrong Albus."

"What's wrong is that once again, I find myself trying to figure out what the hell I am going to do if Voldemort decides to attack me by hurting the one person I love most. If you are, in any way implied in this battle, if I involved you in this project… I thought I would have been automatically endangering you… without giving you a chance to decide if that was what you truly wanted."

She placed a hand on his cheek and slowly run it down his face until her fingers were delicately tracing his lips.

"Albus, this is everyone's battle, you can't try to protect me from it," she was silent for a second. "I can assure you one thing," she stated, now more firmly, "if you had continued to try to keep me out of this I would have battled you until I had no strength left in me, because there is no way in hell, I would let the man I love battle an evil wizard by himself."

He kissed her again, but this time the kiss was brief.

"Yesterday I… when I… after seeing your magnificent creation, by the way… I realised I had forgotten something."

"And what is that?"

He lowered his lips to hers. His kiss grew passionate and Minerva found herself out of breath and unable to decide whether she should pull back for some air or just continue relishing on the intoxicating feeling of his lips on hers. It was Albus who broke the kiss.

"Happy Birthday, my love."

"I thought- I thought you-"

"I treated you so horribly… when I should have been trying to make you feel special and loved. Minerva, I could never forget your birthday." He reached for her hand and placed a small jewelery box in it. Minerva gasped at the sight of the box alone. "I was hoping to give it to you as soon as I returned from London, but… well… it's just that a giant wizard chess is not something you see everyday." They both laughed.

"I guess I managed to impress you then," she suggested with a smile.

"You did. Original, stylish and clever." He tillted her chin up just as she was about to open the little box so that he could look into her eyes. "I could never wish for a better deputy, and I hope you can forgive this old man for making you feel like you are anything other than perfect." He cupped her face in his hands and hushed her imminent reply with his own lips. "You probably worked day and night to get that done in time, didn't you?"

His right hand had not left her face, her eyes were closed now and she was leaning into his touch, her own hands holding his against her cheek as if she were trying to increase the contact with her skin. After a few moments of enjoying his touch she let go.

"I wanted to prove to you that I could pull it off, despite the fact that I was in charge of the school and, of course, had my own work to do."

He reached for the fur box, which was now resting on her lap, and opened it. Whatever was in it shone so brightly in the darkness that it took her eyes a few moments to adapt to the new light and finally distinguish the most elegant, gorgeous ring.

"It's goblin made. Its diamonds were taken out of goblin mines and they shine most brightly under the moonlight. A symbol of my eternal love for you and a reminder that you don't need to prove anything to me ever again, Minerva."

TBC.

Hi everyone, I apologise for the delay, I've been a bit busy lately. I also apologise for spelling mistakes and my terrible typing. Hope you enjoyed this one, there's more to come.


End file.
